


Peaking In The Red

by Lee_of_io



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Graphic Description, Other, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 11:43:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17059154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lee_of_io/pseuds/Lee_of_io
Summary: "I think I’ve got an idea.”One from the back steps forward and draws out a large knife.“Heat this for me.  The rest of you, hold him still.  Don’t beat his face too bad.  Don’t want that pretty mouth of his too swollen that we can’t get in.”





	Peaking In The Red

**We’re not alone.**

 

Well, that was no good. They had been on the trail of a lead for Eddie’s latest journalistic investigation. Normally the garden-variety drug smuggling operation in their city wouldn’t involve such surreptitious sleuthing. Nine times out of ten Eddie had to bribe Venom with promises of plenty of chocolate, to wash down the half-dozen human heads that no doubt would soon find their way into their shared gullet, in order to keep the restlessly eager Symbiote from blowing their cover before Eddie could record any proof of nefarious activities. This time was different though. This particular case went all the way to the top. If Eddie’s sources and intuition lead to the same conclusion, this particular drug smuggling operation tied mafia activity with prominent members of the local government. The evidence compiled had to be airtight. Eddie knew his journalistic integrity was on shaky ground due to the whole Life Foundation business, which is why nothing could be left open for interpretation, the evidence had to be irrefutable. The guilty parties had to be caught red-handed.

 

Which was why Venom’s warning couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time.

 

“How many?”

 

**Five. Two are coming from our left-hand side. They are around the corner of the far exit, there. The other three are making their way towards us from the ally we came from.**

 

Eddie glances furtively around the structure he had elected to use as the base of operation for their stakeout. It was fairly old and enclosed; the hope being that it was isolated enough to not draw the attention of any roving lookouts. Ideally, if they needed to escape, they would exit back out into the ally, but that option was now off the books. This was not an ideal location to allow Venom to take the reins if a confrontation broke out. And it seemed more and more likely that one would.

 

“Shit. This is not good.”

 

**We will go and take out the two on the left. They are far enough away that the others will not make it in time to help before we are done. Foolproof.**

 

“You seem a little too confident in that, love. Did you consider that they might want us to take on the two sitting ducks? Could be a trap.”

 

**Better they are the ducks than us, yes? If we can’t fight in here, then we bring the fight to them.**

Couldn’t fault that logic. Either way, they had to move soon. Their location had been compromised. Better to beat a hasty (a potentially messy) retreat than risk the alternative. If Eddie was lucky, this little setback wouldn’t cost him all the hard work he had accumulated by sending the targets scurrying back undercover.

 

“Alright. Just keep your focus on those three coming in from the ally. We need to try and draw as little attention as possible. Does it seem like any of them have direct eyes on us?”

 

**Not sure. Seems unlikely though. They probably just know that we are in the area.**

 

Ok, Eddie had scraped out of worse scenarios than this. And that was on his own. As one, as Venom, nothing could stand in their way.

 

He felt a purr of affection travel through their shared body like a shiver before the Symbiote’s affection returned to matters of surveillance.

 

Quickly and quietly as he could, Eddie packed up his camera and recording equipment and made his way toward the far exit toward. It would take longer to make their way back out of the dilapidated complex this way, but if they could make their way to a roof or window exit Venom could take over and take them, bounding across rooftops back a more secure part of the city. Their pursuers would be left scratching their heads wondering how they got away and, if luck was on their side, the targets would have no idea who Eddie was.

 

As he approached the corner that Venom had identified, Eddie slowed. The plan was to shift into Venom’s bulkier, monstrous form and strike before either lookout knew what was happening, let alone raise the alarm.

 

“Work your magic, love,” Eddie whispered just as he rushed around the corner, Venom flowing out of his body and amassing over his frame in one liquid motion _—_

 

Only to be met with a fireball blast about eight feet high.

 

Venom’s reaction is an instantaneous shriek of indignation and terror. This was not in the plan. Instinctively they recoil as far from the source of the jettisoning flames as possible.

 

The attack is relentless. Their retreat is doing nothing. Eddie screams in shared pain along with the Symbiote, their liquid form roiling in anguish at the intense heat.

 

No matter how far back they flee, the stream of fire is constant.

 

_We are dying_

 

At last, the fire seems to ease up. Venom has retreated back inside Eddie’s body, too damaged to endure further onslaught. Eddie can’t help a whimper of pain that escapes his lips in shared agony. The fire was quite but Eddie’s eyes have been blinded with the afterimage of the flames.

 

He feels a gloved hand grip his hair and wrench his face up into the beam of a flashlight, further robing him of vision and leaving him to sputter in disorientation.

 

“This him?”

 

“Gotta be. Haven’t heard of too many other nosy reporters turned monstrous freaks.”

 

“How did you know about the fire thing?”

 

“Heard it from one of Jessie’s men. They had a run in with this freaky fuck three months ago. Apparently one of them had flares on hand in case they needed to signal. The big guy here didn’t react well to it.”

 

“Shit.”

 

“You awake in there, Brock?” At this, the hand twisted in his hair jerks his head side to side.

 

Eddie let’s out a groan in response. Slowly his senses are coming back to him. He could make out two forms behind the gleam of the flashlight.

 

“Fuck you.”

 

He tried to inject every last bit of cold rage he could into those words, but unfortunately, his voice cracked rather pathetically on the last syllable.

 

Looking inward, Eddie tried to reach out and assess Venom’s status. _You there, V? I know you’re hurting, but you gotta say something. Just let me know you’re still with me, love._

 

**_Here Eddie. Hurt. Can’t come out. Hurts so much._ **

 

Eddie releases a shaky breath. _I know, love. Just sit this one out. I’ve got us_. He hoped to God that wasn’t a lie.

 

“Oh good. Looks like we got here just in time for the fun.”

 

Three more men walked up onto the scene. Great, the five friends were assembled. Just more shit for Eddie to deal with.

 

“What did the boss say about him? Should we take him out?”

 

“No, this one’s too recognizable. Plus, if there really is a mole in the ranks, feeding no-good shit for brains reporters our business, the last thing we need is the cops sniffing around after a missing persons report.” At this Eddie’s face is slammed into the concrete flooring. Spots manifest lazily in his vision and he’s vaguely aware that his head is bleeding.

 

“Best thing we can do is silence this guy. Not permanently, mind you. Just enough that everyone knows he got what was coming to him. Plus, with that scary monster friend of his out of the picture, there’s no way he’d be dumb enough to come back here.”

 

They think Venom is dead, burned up in the fire. They had no idea that the Symbiote was currently curled up in his gut, hurt, but safe. Good. Let them think that Eddie was alone and down for the count. That way they wouldn’t be so inclined to hit them with the flamethrower again. _Stay inside, love. Please, no matter what happens. We can risk getting hit again with the fire_.

 

It is a testament to how hurt Venom truly is that they are only able to send a flicker of _pain/trust/apprehension_ to Eddie in the place of words.

 

“I think I’ve got an idea.”

 

One from the back steps forward and draws out a large knife.

 

“Heat this for me. The rest of you, hold him still.”

 

Fuck that. If they were expecting him to just sit here passively and take whatever twisted torture they dished out, they had another thing coming. He lurches forward, trying to topple the one holding his hair. This just earns him a gut stomp followed by a few more hits in the face before more hands reel him back into a sitting position.

 

“Don’t beat his face too bad. Don’t want that pretty mouth of his too swollen that we can’t get in.”

 

This is met with chuckles all around him. What the fuck were they planning? Out of the corner of his eye he can see the knife being held over an incendiary device, its blade glowing brighter the longer its exposed. If Eddie wasn’t panicking before, he is now.

 

 

“Open him up.”

 

Eddie thrashed as fingers gripped at the side of his jaw and the seam of his clenched mouth. This couldn’t be happening.

 

One hand managed to pry open his lips while another worked to unlock his gritted teeth. In a burst of protective energy, Venom surged up inside Eddie and took the offensive. Eddie felt his teeth elongate and sharpen if only for a split second before coming down on the fingers in his mouth with a sickeningly wet chomp.

 

Eddie relished in the resulting screams of anguish for a beat before a fist struck him in the nose. The resulting crunch of cartilage sent him reeling.

 

**_Eddie!_ **

 

 _I’ll be alright, love, but you can’t do that again! They can’t know you’re still in here._ Eddie focused his dazed thoughts as best he could and sent Venom his memory of the rocket explosion that nearly killed them both. _Can’t lose you love. Not again. They’ll torch us for good this time if they suspect you’re still alive._

 

He knew it was manipulative and couldn’t help the wash of shame that sent the acids in his stomach roiling in response. But he wasn’t a fool. These assholes mentioned keeping him alive, but realistically, that could turn any second. Eddie didn’t need Venom, in their weakened state, to try something dumb out of a sense of protective rage. Eddie didn’t care what happened to himself as long as Venom stayed safe. He just hopes their little finger biting stunt hadn’t blown their cover.

 

Evidently, it didn’t. But what it did do was make their tormentors even angrier.

 

“Get his mouth the fuck open and get his tongue out!”

 

A hand came down and clamped like a vise over his broken nose, grinding bits of broken cartilage and blood vessels into mincemeat in an effort to suffocate him into opening up. Eddie resisted through streaming tears of pain for all of three seconds before gasping out, more in excruciation than the need for air. Fingers dove in again and split his jaw open, too wide for his normal human body without Venom’s ability to unhinge their jaw like a demonic snake. The resulting _pop_ and explosion of pain across his already overwhelmed senses told Eddie well enough that something had come out of alignment.

 

He was beginning to lose track of the places he didn’t hurt.

 

He had only a moment to register the bitter taste of metal in his wounded mouth before what felt like a pair of pliers bit down on the fragile meat of his tongue.

 

“Hold him steady now. No more funny business now, Brock. Hopefully, the heat will cauterize you right up, and you won’t have to die. But there’s no telling where the knife will go if you struggle.” At this, someone gave a condescending couple of pats to his shoulder. _Oh God._

 

**_Eeedddieee!!_ **

It came out as a shrill plaintive cry that shook his insides. Venom knew what was coming and Eddie could feel them withering weakly in sick anticipation.

 

_Please, love, just be ready to stanch the blood flow so we don’t bleed out. Anything else, I can deal with._

 

**_We, Eddie, we can deal with!_ **

 

_Not this time, V. I got us into this mess and now I’ll see us out. We’ll be we again soon, love. Just as soon as you’ve recovered. Then we’ll make them pay._

 

**_…yes. We’ll make them pay for hurting us._ **

 

Eddie couldn’t have been more grateful for Venom’s reluctant acceptance of the situation, as just at that moment the heated knife came down on the vulnerable flesh of his tongue.

 

It was agony unlike any he had ever known before.

 

Even when Riot had bisected him it had been a brief pain, given way to the numbness of death too quickly to really register.

 

This was centralized, acute, and unrelenting.

 

Eddie could feel his own scream reverbed and echoed by the Symbiote just beneath his skin. Eddie felt naïve for believing that Venom would be kept protected from his pain. They were one, after all.

 

He was vaguely aware of the sensation of flesh sizzling as it came away from flesh. Blood flooded his mouth and the knife clumsily sawed away at the flapping organ in his head. He only dimly registered the bodies around him making frantic noises and movements. One sounded like he had gone off a retched all over the ground a few feet to the left.

 

There was an inhumanly long moment where the pliers lost their grip and Eddie was treated to the horrid sensation of feeling his tongue flop lifelessly out of the side of his mouth, still attached by a few useless millimeters of muscle. Eddie would have screamed anew at this fresh horror if he wasn’t already choking on his own blood and rising gorge.

 

Eddie blessedly felt his consciousness slipping at this point, ferrying him away to the depths of his own mind, but not before he felt a hand reach out and rip the remnants of his tongue from the stub left between his teeth.

 

* * *

 

 

The first thing he is aware of is the gentle rocking of movement.

 

He groans softly, then immediately bites down a whimper.

 

The pain radiating from his mouth is not as intense as before, but even the smallest vibration up past his airway and along the stump now between his lips leads to severe misery.

 

**_Awake Eddie?_ **

 

_Yes love._

 

He almost makes the mistake of saying the endearment aloud and is left reeling at the throb that radiates out of the small twitching movement from his mouth.

 

“He’s awake, I think. Making noise at least. Guess he’s not dead after all.”

 

The voice is somewhere in front of him. He slowly registers that he is lying prone in the back seat of some vehicle.

 

“Then we should dump him somewhere soon. Don’t need him starting trouble.”

 

_How are you feeling, love? Well enough to take over for a little while?_

**_We are better now and we would like nothing more._ **

 

Within seconds Eddie blissfully relaxes his body as Venom emerges and engulfs themselves around their wounded host, in one fluid motion biting the head clean off the man in the passenger’s seat.

 

If there were any onlookers (which there weren’t) they might have seen the car just then sharply veers off the side of the road and slams into a tree. They might spy the gratuitous spray of carotid arterial blood paint the insides of the windshields. Them might then watch with horror as the driver stumbles out of the car and only manages a short scream of terror before something _huge_ emerges from the doorframe like a shadow, silencing the man by coming down on his head with a nauseating _crunch_.

 

And if there were any onlookers who hadn’t strategically fled the scene at this point, they may notice the face of the monster partially peel back, revealing a haggard looking man's face, before hearing him say, “Now let’s go make the rest of those bastards pay.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Son et Lumiere + Inertiatic ESP by The Mars Volta.
> 
> I would be lying if I said I didn't think of a very specific way to hurt Eddie, then conjured up a whole scenario to facilitate that hurt. I really do like him and Venom though, I swear. Maybe one day I'll write something that doesn't involve torturing the two of them.
> 
> The fantastically talented [Picnokinesis](https://picnokinesis.tumblr.com/) created cover art for this and several other wonderful Venom fics that you can check out [here](https://picnokinesis.tumblr.com/post/185363038097/so-i-havent-really-drawn-for-ages-so-i-figured)!


End file.
